Man accused of throwing child from a 3rd floor balcony at Mall of America in random attack

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BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota – The man arrested for allegedly pushing or throwing a child from the third floor of the Mall of America in Minnesota had been banned from the mall in the past and once told police he had anger issues, court records show.

Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, 24, was charged with attempted homicide after witnesses said a man either pushed or threw the 5-year-old child on Friday morning from the Bloomington mall’s third interior level to its first, police said.

Aranda, who police said took off running after the incident, was found inside the mall’s transit station and arrested.

Authorities described the child’s injuries as life-threatening and said witnesses gave the child first aid.

“The child did suffer significant injuries,” Police Chief Jeff Potts said. “The child has been transported to the hospital and has been receiving care.”

At this point, police do not believe there is a relationship between the family of the child and the suspect, Potts said.

Suspect has a history with the mall

Aranda lives in the Bloomington area and has a series of arrests and convictions related to the mall.

He had been banned from Mall of America in the past and was convicted of misdemeanors in two incidents there in 2015, court records show.

Aranda was charged in July 2015 with causing damage inside stores after he threw items off the upper level of the mall to the lower level, court records obtained by CNN affiliate WCCO show.

He was accused three months later of throwing glasses of ice water and tea at a woman in a restaurant at the mall after she refused to buy him food, the records show. In that incident, he got into a physical scuffle with the manager of the restaurant, sending panicked diners fleeing, according to court records that also note Aranda at that point had been banned from Mall of America property through early July 2016.

In August 2015, witnesses saw Aranda smashing computers on the floor of a Minneapolis library, causing about $5,000 in damage, according to a 2015 complaint. Police were called and arrested him without incident after finding him at a bus stop across the street.

Aranda in that case told authorities he got “angry after he read something on the Facebook” and so smashed five computers, screens and keyboards, court records show, citing a recorded statement. “He said he has some anger issues and told the officer that it does not happen all the time,” the complaint states.

Child’s mother was screaming

A witness Friday at the mall told WCCO that the child’s mother was screaming that someone had thrown her child from the balcony.